Big Wille Style

by Anne

Willie Mitchell is a Los Angeles King. A foxy stay-at-home defenseman? Providing a stabilizing presence for Doughty/Johnson? High potential for punching people?

These defensive corps just keeps getting better and better. Willie will have to keep me happy for the first month of the season until Greener recovers from his harrowing shoulder ordeal. He's not American, but no one's perfect. I'm just greatful he was saved from the grodiness of the Vancouver Canucks.

I used to LOVE the Canucks. I loved them waaaay more than the Kings about two years ago. Then... something changed. I'm not sure if it was the irritating smugness of a whole bunch of Canucks fans on Twitter (not ALL, just many), the whininess of Roberto Luongo,  Big Bear's injury-plagued season, or the ridiculousness of Canucks' writers. Whatever it was, all those things combined to make me keep the Canucks at arm's length. If it weren't for Ryan Kesler or...yeah, pretty much if it weren't for Kes, I would flat out just hate the Canucks. But, as it stands, I like Ryan Kesler, Christian Ehrhoff, the Sedins, and Ryan Johnson and that's about it.

Anyway, Big Willie is a King now, and shall be for the next two seasons. I wonder what number he'll be rocking in SoCal?

Ok, its been a few days

by Anne

I hope the Sabres just crinkle up Saturday's game and throw it away and never speak of that atrocity again.

• The Canucks won last night! They defeated the red-hot Colorado Avalanche 3-0. The Avs are ranked 30th in the league in shots taken per game, and that seemed to fell them. Andrew Raycroft earned a shutout, but he only had to make 18 saves.

Kes' face drew six minutes in minor penalties last night.

That Kes, always sacrificing for the team

• Kesler had a heck of a game, as did Mason Raymond who appears to be 17 but is married? Bananas.

• Speaking of babies having babes: according to Sabres Edge, Jason Pominville and his wife welcomed a baby today or at least sometime in the last 24 - 48 hours! Baby Pommer! How adorable. Lindy put it best in his post-practice presser:

The reason Jason Pominville didn't skate today?

"The population of Pominville went up, so he had the day off," said coach Lindy Ruff, referring to a baby for Pominville and his wife.

Oh Lindy, you devil, you. Congrats Pommer and Mrs. Pommer who I think is named Kim!

• The Sunny Hedgehog Enchanters managed to hold onto first place in their fantasy league, despite having a bye week. Phew! We return to action tonight. Vinny Lecavalier and David Backes remain in the doghouse. I traded Phil Kessel. I might regret that down the line, but probably not. If this were a keeper league, I would've held on to him.
  

• The Kings are hosting a Fathers' trip for the game in Phoenix tonight. There are 16 dads on the trip. Interesting name tidbits: Davis Drewiske's dad's name is David. How confusing. Jack Johnson, whose full name is long and complicated is actually Jack Johnson III so Dad is also Jack Johnson. Teddy Purcell's dad is also Ted, Rob Scuderi's dad is Bob. I just love Randy Jones' dad's name: Butch Jones. His name sounds like he should be starring in a B-rate action movie as Rambo's arch-nemesis. There are four dads named Jim: Greene, Harrold, Smyth and Richardson. Wayne Simmonds' dad and Kopi's dad win for best names: Cyril and Matjaz, respectively. Hopefully there will be delightful anecdotes and photographs soon.
  

•  The Bills are just terrible and the Steelers didn't play so football was a bust this weekend. The Vikings/Packers game was exciting but I don't care toooo much about that. I like Brett Favre, always have, but I just don't care too much.
  

• I used to really enjoy reading Joe Caligiuri's blog. He's a trainer for the Kings, and he offered some interesting insight into the world of the LA Kings. Unfortunately he seemed to offer too much insight and his blog has been shut down. Fortunately, Google Reader held onto these posts so I can still read them.
  

• The Kings play tonight in Phoenix, which means the game is at 9:00 instead of 10:00 or 10:30. Sweet

Anne's Review of the 2009 NHL Awards Show

by Anne

I didn't watch any of the Awards show so my entire experience is from the perspective of Twitter and the photo gallery:

I told you Iggy won the award for being badass and bald

Hey Steve!
Congrats!
Love the stripes

Oh Kes.
Oh goodness.
A comb, my love, a comb.

In case you'd forgotten how badass and bald he is

My Oilers WCB won the King Clancy!
Yay!
Captain, badass, charitable, adorable children?
Perfection

My Mom and I just had this conversation:

Me: I thought Sid was at the Awards? There's no pictures of him.

Mom: He was busy tracking down Lidstrom to shake his hand.

Spot on, Peg. Spot. On.

I'm a Bad Fan and Something Ottawa and Buffalo Fans Can Do Together

by Anne

The Sabres lost to the Senators as I knew they would. They have yet to walk away with four points from back to back weekend games this entire season. At least the two points went to Ottawa and not, like, Florida.

Fortunately, my secondary and tertiary teams managed to pull through and come up with victories against higher ranked opponents to salvage my Saturday. Granted, with the Kings, there are only two teams ranked lower in their conference.

The Kings took on the Wild in a matinee which they won 4-3. Greener had an assist, giving him 11 assists and 12 points this year. I'm a bad fan because he suddenly went from having 7 assists to having 11 and I did not notice. Last week the Sabres level of FAIL reached critical mass and I was running around with duct tape and ribbon trying to put things back together. I feel shame.

Sorry, Greener
Reader Amanda wants to encourage my odd love of Matt Greene and found this picture on Ebay
I could apparently own this card.
That would be hella weird
But thanks anyway Amanda!

The win gave the Kings a 4-0 season series sweep over the Wild. Woooo!! Its still a longshot for them to make the playoffs but everything is so close that you can't completely count them out just yet.

Saturday night after the Sabres fail of game, the Canucks hosted the Sharks and won 3-1. Yay! Big Bear had a decent game even though he was left off the score sheet. I wish he'd get a little scrappier though. Just start hitting some more things, Steve.

The Canucks have been rather less than successful against the Sharks in recent memory so this win was huge.

Ryan Kesler was on After Hours and I really really wanted to stay awake and watch it but considering it started at 1:00 am and I had been running around all day, I did not make it. Sorry Kes! Maybe the CBC video will be working tomorrow. It was out of commission when I attempted to watch it this afternoon.

Also, if you want to take a brief moment to find the positive side of Sens fans, read this letter to Derek Roy. I say we put aside our petty differences with Ottawa (what's a few Eastern Conference Finals between friends?) and join hands in proclaiming the downfall of the Montreal Canadiens. Because, frankly, don't we want them all to just shut up and go away?

Finally! A Win!

by Anne

The Canucks picked a GREAT game to decide to win at home in regulation!

A seesaw of a game saw the Canucks up 2-0, then the 'Canes rally to quickly tie. Then it was 3-2 Canucks, then 3-3. Talk about hair-pulling. When Mattias Ohlund gets a penalty in the waning minutes of the game, you're sure this is a 'Canes power play goal.

Then what happens? Short handed, Kesler takes the puck in the Canucks zone and passes it to one Alexandre Burrows streaking up the middle all alone on Cam Ward and one back-hand top shelf shot later, the game is 4-3 Canucks and that's how it ends.

That was a really really exciting game, and doubly rewarding. Not only do the Canucks get two desperately needed points (at home, no less), but they also down the 'Canes in regulation, keeping them in 9th place, two points back of the Sabres. Phew.

I watched the 'Canes feed and it was really fun to listen how bummed out they were to leave those points in the Western Conference.

In the play off picture: Unfortunately the Panthers defeated Toronto tonight in OT and they're currently sitting in 8th, one point behind us. Pittsburgh lost... again. 

Unrelated to anything affecting the Sabres, the Kings won tonight 1-0 over Ottawa. And we got to watch Anze Kopitar make these crepe-like pancakes. Thanks?

Tomorrow's game against Toronto is that much more important.

Wooooo Canucks!

All-Star Voting is Complete, Christmas is Over, Time for Trade Rumors!

by Anne

We've all heard about Kovalchuck potentially being moved from Atlanta. He's an offensive superstar wasting away on a team that's ranked 28th in the league. However, in a move that most expected to come at the beginning of the season, the Thrashers have just NOW named Kovy their captain. Hard to believe he's only the fifth Russian born and trained player in history to be named captain of an NHL team. Does this quash the trade rumors? Does this mean Kovalchuk is happy in Hotlanta? Does this mean Don Waddell trades away the team's only legitimate star? Soupy was an alternate captain the month he was traded and captain only two months before that. I still say Kovy is moved.

Then there's his South East Division goal scoring hombre, Vinny Lecavalier. He's the team captain and just signed a DiPietro-esque 11 year contract extension that goes into effect this July 1. For the last few crappy Bolts seasons, there have been rumors that Marty St. Louis or Vinny were on the trade market, but for some reason this season the rumors are hotter than ever. The ever popular Vinny-to-the-Habs trade has come up yet again. Why in God's name would they trade him? I'm not saying that they won't trade him, because that genius parade running shop down in Tampa has done some pretty bone-headed things this past few months, but Vinny is their only superstar. If I lived in Tampa and there was no Vinny Lecavalier, who else would I go to watch? Marty "Don't Call Me Shortstack" St. Louis? He's good, but he's not the franchise player that Vinny is. Stamkos is floundering and probably should be back in Sarnia where he can gain some confidence, why wasn't he allowed to be in the World Juniors? That's beyond me. Basically, I don't want Vinny in Montreal because that just ups Montreal into serious contender status and that's bad for the Sabres. Bad bad bad.

What's the latest in trades for the Sabres? Darcy doesn't make splashy trades. Well, he gives away splashy but doesn't bring IN splashy. We could use Vinny up here! Tampa needs defense, right? I say Tallinder, Paetsch and a first rounder for Vinny. Who's with me?!

Another center that might be on the move is Jason Spezza. As much as I want a solid top line center for the Sabres, I feel like Spezza in Buffalo would be like that scene in Mighty Ducks when that kid who never appeared in any of the other movies called Adam Banks a "cake-eater" when he was forced to play for them when the divisional lines were redrawn and something about a lake being a cutoff point. I'm putting money on Royzie being the one to dish out that kind of smack talk.

Stafford for Kesler? As part of something bigger? That's the rumor from the unreliable Hockeybuzz.com. I love Kesler so if we were to lose Staffy it'd have to be for someone like Kes to avoid the onslaught of sadness. However, what would this "bigger" be, I wonder? If we got Kes, I'd want to keep him. What's with the Sabres trading with the Canucks all of a sudden? 1970 represent.

If Staffy gets traded, I have to say I TOTALLY CALLED IT. A month after that post, things are a little different and Staffy is producing more, meaning we'd get more a in a trade involving him than we would in a trade involving Pie.

Whatevs, I really love the trade deadline. It's my favorite hockey day of the year, followed closely by free agent day, opening day and the draft.

I've Had Enough

by Anne

If I didn't work at the Arena I would have nothing to do with this team for the next few games.

The Pirates won 4-2. Woo.

That's all I got.

Henrik is thinking: Dude, Ryan Kesler is rubbin' you up, why are you more interested in your phone
Henrik, you and I are totally in sync.
Can I be the triplet?
I can't skate, but I love Big Bear a lot... does that count for anything?

This sucks. I want Mark Mancari. I want him NOW.

SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE.